


always a plus one (never a groom)

by hotdamnitszuko



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Drinking, Friends to Lovers, Humor, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Past Jet/Zuko (Avatar), Sharing a Bed, it's a cheesy romcom fic this was completely self indulgent, sharing a lot of beds actually, yes the title is a play on 'always a bridesmaid never a bride', zuko and sokka go to a shit ton of weddings together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-05
Updated: 2021-01-05
Packaged: 2021-03-16 01:33:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28573824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hotdamnitszuko/pseuds/hotdamnitszuko
Summary: “Hey, Sokka? Will you come to another wedding with me next week? I- I RSVP'd to bring a guest when Jet and I were still dating… I don’t think I can show up alone." Zuko fills the second of silence that Sokka left, having expected an immediate no from Sokka. "There’s probably gonna be a lot of cute girls there, you might meet someone! Please, Sokka?”Sokka almost thinks about saying no. The idea of having to go to any more weddings than he already has to is gonna give him an instant migraine. But sitting here, looking at tearful, drunk Zuko, he can’t do that. He can't say no to him.-zuko and sokka decide that the best way to get through the late-twenties wedding rush is to do them all together. as it turns out, being surrounded by people in love all the time will make you want to kiss your single and hot high school best friend.
Relationships: Aang/Katara (Avatar), Azula/Ty Lee (Avatar), Bato/Hakoda (Avatar), Sokka/Zuko (Avatar), Suki/Yue (Avatar)
Comments: 59
Kudos: 395





	always a plus one (never a groom)

**Author's Note:**

> hiiiii
> 
> ok i have been binging bad romantic comedy movies all of winter break and thought that there needed to be some more stupid cheesy zukka fics. this is based off of the movie 'plus one' but ultimately, it is a bad movie. i took what crumbs i wanted from the plot i thought were neat and left out all the weird (and inappropriate) parts out, but if u feel the need to watch the source material then go right ahead!
> 
> as always, no beta we run it through grammarly and then die like jet. enjoy!

“You know, I never thought that I would be standing in front of a group of people, giving the best man speech at the wedding of two of my ex-girlfriends.” Sokka started, an empty plastic hotel room cup in hand.

“But… I guess this makes sense. You know, when I met Yue she was already engaged, right out of high school. The guy was kind of a dick, but his family was close to hers. The engagement didn’t last too long after we met because… well I’m a very charming and funny guy, as you all know. Yue and I had such a strong connection to one another-”

“Sokka, excuse me.” Zuko speaks up from where he was lounging in the middle of Sokka’s queen-sized hotel room bed, “I have a question.”

“Mhm, yep,” Sokka prompts. His eyebrows raise at the same time as his hands fall to his sides.

“Why is this entire speech about when you and Yue dated?” Zuko snorts, tilting his head to the side. His hair was half tied back, his button-up shirt ultimately a little wrinkled from his time on top of the crisp white duvet.

“It’s an allegory, can you just let me finish?” Sokka’s voice was lacking the annoyance he probably should have felt (and would have felt if it had been anyone but Zuko).

“Oh!! Well, as an allegory, then this is fantastic.” 

“You promised you’d be supportive.”

Zuko gasped into the rim of his own cup, sipping at the contents. They had made sure to hit the minibars in both of their rooms. “I am!! I _just_ said it was fantastic. Keep going.”

Sokka rolls his eyes but looks back down at the crumpled paper in his other hand. “See, Yue and I had everything any couple would hope to have. We didn’t take ourselves too seriously, she found me funny and I was completely enamored by her… everything. Except that she wasn’t exactly into men in the dating kind of way. That took her some time to figure out, and when she realized it, we decided to end things in a very mature way. I just didn’t expect to unintentionally set her up with my other ex-girlfriend a couple of years later. But now, I’m really happy I did, because I couldn’t imagine a more perfect duo. I guess I’m kind of biased though.” Sokka grins, raising his cup in a faux toast “Congratulations to the both of you. I wish you all the best.”

Zuko laughs, shaking his head a little. It’s fond and familiar, something Sokka was used to over the years of annoying Zuko into liking his jokes.

“Well, that was fucking weird.” Zuko shrugs, finishing off his liquor as he crosses his legs. He seems to have no care for his dress shoes touching Sokka’s blankets. Where he is going to sleep tonight. _Thanks_.

“Alright, my speech is good. You’re just being a dick,” 

“You seem to be holding onto a lot of jealousy,” Zuko says as he pushes off of the bed and over to refill his cup.

“I am not! I’m happy for them, I really am.”

“Clearly,” Zuko turns to lean against the desk in his room, a childish grin on his face.

Sokka huffs, sitting down in the chair beside him to start putting on his shoes. “I think it’s time for _you_ to go back to your own room.”

“I don’t like my room,” Zuko’s voice is dripping in the beginnings of a whine. 

“It’s the same as mine,” Sokka finishes the last tie of his dress shoe laces. He stands up to shove Zuko gently off of the desk and in the direction of the door. “And as the best man, I have to go down for pictures and like... Mingling. Lots of mingling.” 

“I’m trying to help! A wedding speech is supposed to just be funny! You wanna make people laugh- hey!” Zuko yelps as he is shoved through the threshold of the door into the carpeted hallway. “No one wants to hear your weird jealous sendoff of the brides. Honestly, I can tell which one you’re more jealous of.”

“I’m not jealous.”

Zuko grins, standing up straighter. The bright fluorescent lights in the hallway made his black hair shine. “You’re a _little_ jealous.”

“Okay! Bye, Zuko.” Sokka reaches forward to shove him gently before closing the door in his face. There’s no mean spirit behind his actions, and he knows Zuko is only teasing him. If Sokka was being honest with himself, he loved seeing slightly buzzed Zuko. He was just looser than sober Zuko. His walls were not quite knocked down, more like a ladder had been propped against them, daring someone to come take a peek into the other side.

“Okay, bye!” Zuko calls from the other side of the door, voice getting fainter as he clearly makes his way down the hall at a slow pace. “Your speech sucked! Just tell them a funny story, you’ll thank me later!”

Sokka rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands until he saw little bursts of light behind his eyelids, slumping back against the closet adjacent to the door. Maybe Zuko was right, maybe he did need to rework his speech. He didn’t want to embarrass Suki or Yue. “ _Fuck_.”

* * *

“-And that was the first time Suki absolutely kicked my ass, but it wasn’t even close to the last” Sokka finishes his story, his own voice echoing back at him from the shitty rental microphone in his hand.

Laughter filled the garden space, seats full of family members and friends in nice clothes. Tabletops were covered with floral centerpieces and crisp white cloths. The tent they were under light up with the gentle glow of string lights. Sokka stood in the middle where they had placed down portable tiles for a temporary dance floor. 

“I’d like to raise a glass…” Sokka paused to lift his champagne flute up, turning to face the happy couple's table more directly. “To Suki and Yue. I love you guys so much, congratulations”

The smile on his face was anything but forced, a warm happiness filling him from his forehead down to his toes. Cheers ring out as he sips at the sweet bubbled in his glass. He hands the microphone back to the guy helping with the sound, stepping off of the wooden flooring, only to be met with multiple acquaintances patting his back and complimenting his speech.

“That was amazing, get over here,” Suki speaks up first as Sokka approaches the table, standing up to pull him into a tight hug. 

“You liked it?” Sokka chuckles, rubbing her back softly.

“Are you kidding me? We loved it.” Suki only pulls back enough that Yue can replace her in the space she just occupied. 

“Thank you, Sokka,” There was a hint of a sniffle, a happy tear still caught in her jet black eyelashes. 

Sokka raises his hand, brushing it away as carefully as he can without messing up her makeup, “Of course, I love you guys. Thank you for trusting me to give a speech.”

“I thought you’d come out and give some sob story about how we both dumped you and how you had to painfully watch your exes get married,” Suki jokes, arm wrapping around her wife’s ( _wife’s!_ ) waist after Sokka and Yue separated. 

“Ha, yeah. Imagine,” Sokka covers up his awkward laugh with another sip of champagne. “Aren’t you two going to dance? You know, the rest of us can’t until you do.” He smoothly changes the subject, head tilting toward the center of the space. 

“Oh!” Yue’s smile brightens even more (if that was possible), already starting to pull Suki away “We’ll see you in a minute!”

“Yeah yeah, go! Go have fun,” Sokka smiles, waving them off. Once they’re out of earshot, he starts making his way back towards his designated table. The singles table, as Suki had lovingly made fun of him for. Whatever.

“Great speech, Snoozles!” Toph smiles when he makes himself known, slumping down into his assigned seat between her and Zuko. 

“He changed the whole thing ‘cause of me,” Zuko says proudly, a slight slur in his words and a blush of redness over his unscarred cheek. 

Zuko had opted for a basic black suit, only set apart from the rest of the crowd by the red stitching in the jacket and the matching red of the ribbon keeping his hair out of his face. Sokka had opted for a deep navy suit, his own hair tied back in his familiar wolf tail but with a few added braids in the front that lead back into the hair tie to hold it all together.

“I think maybe you’ve had enough,” Sokka laughs, stealing his glass and taking a sniff of it. Liquor and something sweet, some kind of juice maybe? A clear sign that Zuko was comfortable enough to let his guard down and have some fun. And it meant that he was trying to stay positive despite what he was going through. “I don’t want you too drunk to dance, cause I was promised a famous Zuko Sozin dance.”

“Yeah, right. Aren’t there some pretty girls around here that would be more than willing to dance with you?” 

“I want a famous Zuko Sozin dance,” Toph pouts from her seat, taking Zuko’s drink from Sokka and starts drinking it.

“You can have one,” Zuko says easily, leaning back in his wooden seat, arms crossed over his chest.

“I’m really hurt by that,” Sokka frowns, looking between the two of them. “Really hurt.”

“You’ll get over it,” Toph laughs, standing up and holding her hand out in front of Sokka. “Come on Sparky.”

With that, Zuko and Toph were off to where people had gathered around to dance to some remixed top 40’s hit mix. Sokka was a little confused about how he ended up alone, but it didn’t last long before some girl he vaguely remembers (He thinks they had some class together in college? Maybe…) comes up and asks him to dance. Who is he to turn down a dance with a pretty girl? Especially when he’s in such a happy place.

So he doesn’t. Sokka lets himself relax, chatting with this girl as they lazily dance around other people. He finds out that they did in fact have a class together, Astronomy 102 in his sophomore year. They had that class with Yue, and apparently, they still kept in contact all these years later.

Sokka asks for her name at the end of the second song. She had replied with “Lian” and a smile.

After what felt like hours, the newlyweds ended the party with many ‘thank-you’s’ to all of the guests for coming, and special goodbyes to their friends.

“Make sure Zuko finds his way back to his room safely,” Suki says to Sokka as she kisses his cheek, pulling back to wipe at the red mark her lipstick left on his dark skin.

“He’s got Toph,” Sokka says, already having thought about asking Lian to go grab a drink with him from the bar down the street so they can finish their conversation.

“He’s drunk and she’s blind,” Suki stares up at him with a blank expression.

 _Right_. “Right,” Sokka nods “Alright, I promise. He will get to his room safe and sound.” 

“Thank you, now I’m going to get out of this suit and make out with my wife. Love you!” Suki had already started walking away, ignoring the fake disgusted noise Sokka made behind her, and threw a wave over her shoulder.

Sokka kept his promise, not just because Suki asked him to but because he really did want Zuko to get to bed safe. “Hey, where’s your dance partner?” He asks after spotting Toph trying to talk Aang into doing shots with her before the servers finished packing up the bar.

“Sparky? He already left like two songs ago,” Toph waves her hand over in the general direction of the entrance to the tent. “Said he was tired and was going to go crash.”

Sokka sighs in relief, nodding as she speaks “Thanks, Toph. I’m going to go meet up with some girl I’ve been talking to. I’ll see you guys for breakfast tomorrow, right?” He leans over to give Katara a side hug.

“Yeah, course.” She hums, flipping some of her hair over her shoulder as she looks up at him “Your speech was really good by the way, tell Zuko I said he did a good job.” Her lips spread into a smirk, dangly earrings sparkling and highlighting her face. 

She looked more and more like their mother as the years passed. It used to hurt Sokka to recognize her features in Katara’s, her laugh in Katara’s laugh, and their eyes that always held a matching kindness. But now, here standing beside him, he felt nothing but pride for his younger sister as she stood chin height to him in her flowing purple dress.

“How did you- nevermind.” Sokka huffs, pulling his arm away from her “I’ll tell him. Don’t be late in the morning, I won’t hesitate to eat without you guys.” He says his goodbyes before going to greet Lian again.

“Are you sure you didn’t want to stay with them?” She smiles, starting to walk with Sokka down the steps. “Especially that one guy, he seemed like he was pretty tipsy there at the end.”

“Nah, I see them all the time. Too much, honestly,” Sokka chuckles, shoving his hands into his pockets. “It’s been really nice getting to talk with you and catch up. Besides, Zuko is… he’s gonna be alright. I think he just needed a night to drink and party with his friends. He’s going through a rough breakup. I’m his shoulder to cry on right now,” Sokka explains as if he needs to.

“Ah. You get to be the lucky shoulder then, huh?”

“Oh yeah. I feel um, really honored, and blessed to have the privilege to do so. One of the many gifts of being put at the singles table,” Sokka jokes, lighting up a little as Lian laughs.

“I think you need a new table,” Lian says, stopping at the curb outside. People are around, splitting off into cars and down the sidewalk to the parking lot, all heading back to their hotels or homes. 

“Ah, see, you need to be in a relationship for that,” Sokka points out, turning to face her.

“I really don't see that being a problem for you. You’re cute and funny!” Lian reaches forward to nudge his arm gently.

“Go on,”

Lian laughs, shaking her head in a similar way to how Zuko had done in his hotel room earlier that day. “Oh, shut up.”

Sokka smiles, taking a small step closer, filling up more of the space between the two of them. Just as he started to lean in, going in for a quick kiss, the moment was abruptly stopped short.

“Oh- Shit.” Lian took a quick step back, hands going out to press into Sokka’s chest to stop him from falling forward. 

“Spirits, I’m s- Did I- What just happened?” Sokka blinks, doubling the air separating them now. “Did I just do something horrible?”

“It’s okay! I just- um, I’m engaged.” Lian raised her left hand quickly, and what do you know, sitting on her finger is a shiny engagement ring.

“Was that there the whole time?” Sokka blurts out, slightly out of breath from the whole ordeal. He doesn’t even care about being rejected, but the feeling of embarrassment is creeping in quickly.

“Yeah..”

“Okay.” Sokka reaches up to tug at the end of his wolf tail nervously, clearing his throat “Gotta start looking out for those I guess,” He tries to joke, but it falls flat. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s really alright,” Lian looks just as uncomfortable and awkward as Sokka feels, pulling her phone out of her purse. “I should get a car, though. I have this crazy day tomorrow, uh and I need to...”

Sokka cuts off her rambling, “Yeah, for sure. Yeah.” He shifts his body towards the road, blowing out a breath that gets caught in the chilling air and turns into a vapor in front of his face. It’s grounding to him, the cold.

“Well, Bye Lian.” Sokka nods, eyes still forward as he steps off of the curb towards where his car was parking waiting for him.

“Bye Sokka,” Lian calls after him, and Sokka swears he can hear the slight pity in her voice as he leaves. 

* * *

Sokka gets to the hotel some 10 minutes later, taking his sweet time getting up to his floor and walking towards his room. He stands outside for a moment, getting his room key from his wallet. 

As he gets the door unlocked, he hears the sound of his TV playing, which. Okay. He didn’t leave that on when he left, but if someone wanted to sneak into his room and watch pay-per-view porn on his room tab while waiting to kill him, Sokka was fine with that after the way his night ended.

There wasn’t a murderer in his bed though, just Zuko. Laying over his blankets, slumped against the pillows. He was still completely in his suit, jacket and all, with a plate resting on his chest.

“What are you doing?” Sokka asks, tugging off his own jacket, dropping it onto the foot of the bed.

“Catching up on an old episode of _Finding Bigfoot_ , eating a grilled cheese sandwich,” Zuko explains through a mouthful, grabbing the remote to mute the television.

“... Cool, another quick question. How did you get in here?”

“I stole one of your key cards this morning,” Zuko shrugs, taking another bite before putting his plate aside.

“Well, that’s a massive violation of privacy.” Sokka walks around the bed to sit down in the chair by the desk. He isn’t actually mad, if anything he is happy he knows for sure Zuko is safe and okay.

“I’m sorry!” Zuko frowns, sitting up now. “How’d it go with that girl?”

Sokka sighs, spinning around in the chair lazily, leaning his head back. “Um, I went in to kiss her, and it didn't end well. Apparently, she’s engaged. Because who _isn’t_ engaged these days. But she was flirting with me a lot for someone who has a fiancé, so-” 

Sokka is cut off but the sudden sound of a sob coming from Zuko, stunning him into going still and looking over. “Whoa- whoa hey, alright,” He moves over to sit beside Zuko quickly and passes him the napkin from under Zuko’s plate “What’s wrong? Is this... a Jet thing?”

“No! It’s not a Jet thing!” Zuko whines, scrubbing at the tears running down his cheeks with the napkin. “It’s just, why does everyone have to get married _now_?” His voice cracks on the last word.

Sokka lets him have a beat of silence before speaking up again, “So, it is a Jet thing,” he frowns, wrapping an arm over Zuko’s shoulders to try and comfort him.

“My little sister is getting married before me. And I still have like three more wedding invitations sitting on my counter at home!”

“Yeah… I’ve got you beat, five. One of which is also _my_ little sister’s wedding.” Sokka frowns, not enjoying the way his chest feels when he really thinks about the fact that the two of them are being overshadowed by their happy and in love younger sisters. “I think once everyone saw 30 coming up, they were all like, “Hey guys, actually I think I will get engaged now.”” Sokka puts on a funny voice, getting off of the bed only to grab Zuko a cup of water.

“Hey, Sokka?” Zuko speaks up, sniffling as he is passed the cold water cup, “Will you come to Jin and Kam’s wedding with me next week? I- I RSVP'd to bring a guest when Jet and I were still dating… I don’t think I can show up alone.”

Sokka almost thinks about saying no. The idea of having to go to any more weddings than he already has to is gonna give him an instant migraine. But sitting here, looking at tearful, drunk Zuko, he can’t do that. He can’t say no to him. 

“There’s probably gonna be a lot of cute girls there, you might meet someone!” Zuko fills the second of silence that Sokka left, having expected an immediate no from Sokka. “Please, Sokka?”

“Yeah, yeah of course I’ll come with you, Zuko.” Sokka nods, rubbing his back softly. They stayed like that for a while, both of them watching the silent television in a comfortable silence. Zuko didn’t want to talk about it, and Sokka was more than willing to give him his time and space (even if he was in Sokka’s bed currently).

It wasn’t long before Zuko was slumping further into Sokka, soft snores leaving his lips. From a mix of the alcohol, the crying, and the early hour, Zuko slept through Sokka clearing off the bed and getting Zuko’s shoes, jacket, and belt off. Sokka shuffled him to one side of the big bed before doing the same for himself. 

Sokka set an alarm for the both of them, reaching over Zuko to flip the light on before laying down beside him. He hadn’t noticed how exhausted the day had made him until his head hit the pillow and he was out for good seconds later.

-

The group met for breakfast the next morning, Zuko ordering nothing but black coffee while sporting the darkest pair of sunglasses he owned. It wasn’t long before he was dozing in Sokka’s passenger side seat, head resting against the window as one of Sokka’s indie playlists soundtracked their boring drive home.

Sokka dropped off Zuko, rolling down the window to startle him awake, “You’re home.”

“What the fuck, you’re such an ass,” Zuko grumbles, pushing his way out of the car before going to grab his bag from the backseat.

“Bye!” Sokka calls from inside the car, already starting to pull away from the curb. He doesn’t turn to see Zuko flipping him off over his shoulder as he tugs his suitcase up his steps, but Sokka’s sure he did it.

* * *

Jin and Kam’s wedding went smoothly, and the drive wasn’t too bad. They had taken the shuttle up to the venue where the wedding was held, cramming into a seat together on the way back.

Zuko didn’t have as much to drink this time around, learning his lesson from last week's hangover. But he had just enough to start venting about Jet. “He tried to take all of the books when he moved out. _My_ books!! Like he’s some kind of reader.” He scoffs, leaning into Sokka so he can hear him over the loud chatter from the others.

“Oh! And I didn’t tell you! He’s sleeping with someone else!” 

“He is?” Sokka furrows his eyebrows, looking over at Zuko. 

“Yeah, some girl in accounting! Someone I hired to work at my family company! Can you believe that?” Zuko’s eyes held more sadness in them than anger.

Sokka pats his leg gently, “You should just fire her.” Sokka means it as a joke, and he’s positive Zuko takes it as one.

“I should,” Zuko nods, scratching at the edge of his scar, his own tick he did when he was upset or frustrated and needed grounding. Zuko wasn’t going to fire her, they both knew that.

“Hey, I was promised I would meet a pretty girl,” Sokka elbows his side gently, “I haven’t had my meet-cute yet.”

“What the hell is a ‘meet-cute’?”

“It’s when you meet someone and immediately fall in love. Like, you both reach for the same box of cereal in the grocery store and it’s like “Oh my god no way you like Frosted Flakes too? That’s crazy, I’m Sokka by the way,” and then you get married and have ten kids and a summer home in Italy.”

Zuko looks uninterested, dropping his hand from his face back down into his lap. “O-kay…” he drags out, “What about her, she looks like she eats cereal.” 

Sokka looks over to where Zuko had nodded his head, seeing a pretty girl across and one row up from their seats. “Yeah she’s pretty-”

Zuko doesn’t even give him the chance to finish his sentence before he is being aggressively shoved into the seat beside her.

“Are you okay?” The girl says suddenly, helping Sokka into the seat fully from where he had half landed onto the floor. 

“Sorry- yeah. Yeah, I’m good. I’m sorry, that was my friend. He doesn’t usually body-check me into pretty women.” Sokka cringes, rubbing his knee over his dress pants. 

“I think I feel a connection happening!” Zuko calls over the back of his seat, before sinking back down to look out the window. 

The girl just laughs, sending a thumbs up Zuko’s way, “He’s funny.”

“No, no he’s not.” 

-

Ultimately they had decided to go get a drink together, leaving Zuko to go back to the big house Jin and Kam had rented out for all of the guests and their dates. It had been a fine night, the girl was nice enough, but Sokka had left after finishing his first beer.

Not staying in a hotel room meant that Zuko and Sokka had to share a room because they had expected Zuko to bring Jet, but the two of them didn’t mind. They had shared rooms a hundred times before, the only downside being how small the bed was.

Sokka pushed the door open, calling out “Hey, I’m back,” when he didn’t see Zuko in the main room.

“How’d it go?” He heard Zuko’s voice from the attached bathroom, the sink running for a second before Zuko appeared in the doorway. He had already gotten into pajamas, toothbrush in hand, and his hair tied up into a haphazard messy bun.

“I got her number, but I don’t know if I’ll call her. Didn’t really feel the meet-cute spark.” Sokka shrugs, going over to dig out some sweats from his overnight bag.

Zuko ducks back into the bathroom for a minute, finishing his nightly routine. “I’m sorry dude, better luck next time.” Zuko pats his shoulder as they pass each other.

Sokka steps into the bathroom next, closing the door behind him but still talking through it, “Next time?”

“Yeah, I was thinking while you were gone that we could just do this… for all of the weddings we have to go to. I take you, you take me. It’s a win-win!” 

Sokka changes and brushes his own teeth, letting the silence fill both rooms. He isn’t expecting Zuko to be right outside the door when he opens it. “Oh- you’re right here. Okay. Some space maybe?” Zuko moves away enough for him to slip aside to put his clothes into his bag. 

“Come on, I could be your wingman!” 

“I’m not looking to go around banging bridesmaids, dude,” Sokka sighs, pulling the blankets back on his side of the bed. If the bed was big enough to even actually have sides.

“I know, I’m not saying that. We can split the costs of hotel rooms together! And this is going to be so much worse if we do it alone,” Zuko frowns, doing the same on his own side, taking one of Sokka’s pillows to add to his.

“Go to bed,” Sokka flips his lamp off, climbing under the blankets.

Zuko doesn’t say another word, just flicks the back of Sokka’s head as he gets into the bed. 

-

It’s the rain that wakes Zuko up, the room having chilled and thunder rumbling the bed slightly. 

Zuko looked over his shoulder, seeing Sokka sleeping beside him. The moon streaming in from the window above their bed lit up his face enough for Zuko to be able to see his eyelashes fluttering against his freckled cheeks.

After dating Jet for so long, Zuko had gotten used to sleeping with someone else’s arms wrapped around him. Especially on nights like this, with his childhood fear of lighting storms crawling through his skin.

Zuko thinks through his next moves for all of a minute before he shifts back against Sokka, automatically feeling more comfortable. Until Sokka wakes up.

“You’re on my side,” Sokka mumbles into his pillow. His eyes were still closed and his voice was scratchy from sleep and the humidity in the room.

“I just wanna cuddle,” Zuko whispers back.

“No, no cuddling,”

“What? You don’t like cuddling?” Zuko was more alert now, sounding personally offended by this new discovery of his best friend.

“I love cuddling, but I don’t want to cuddle with you.” Sokka sighs, his breath hitting the back of Zuko’s neck. Zuko ignores that, moving further into his side. “Hey, hey. You cross this line and you’re in foreign airspace and you’ll be shot out of the sky.”

Even in his sleep ridden state, Sokka had to be the funniest person in any given room. “It’s just cuddling.”

“No, it’s not.” Sokka blinks open at the feeling of the bed shaking slightly as Zuko turns to face him now, “If I get a boner, you’ll think I’m attracted to you. And knowing you, you’ll never let me live it down.”

“Oh my god, you’re so stupid. I promise I won’t read anything into your boner.” Zuko groans, glad for the darkness in the room to hide his reddening cheeks.

“Okay, and what if I _don’t_ get a boner? Then you can’t fall asleep because now you think I think you’re not hot enough to get a boner. There is no way I can come out of this situation in a positive way.”

“Are you always this annoying in bed?” 

“Yes.” And Zuko makes a mental note to ask some of his exes about this at a later date.

“What if I was the big spoon?” Zuko offers, quickly losing hope in this going his way.

“Then it’s the same thing but _I’m_ the one worried about what _your_ dick is doing,” Sokka argues, rolling over to face the wall.

“I hate you,” It comes out in a huff. Neither of them believes that. Zuko turns away from Sokka, their backs facing each other, now in the opposite positions that they woke up in.

Silence filled the room, Zuko’s eyes closed while Sokka’s remained open, watching the shadows from the trees outside their window dance along the floral wallpaper. Sokka let out a sigh, turning to face Zuko’s back now.

“Hey,” He whispers, sliding his arm over Zuko’s middle, pulling him closer. “I’ll go to these weddings with you.” He says in reference to their earlier conversation.

“...Really?” Sokka can hear the smile in Zuko’s voice.

“Yeah.”

“Thank you, Sokka,” Zuko rests a hand over Sokka’s on his waist, rubbing the back of his hand with his thumb softly.

* * *

The next few months go by in a blur, between their daily work lives and traveling for all of these weddings. Sokka and Zuko make the most of them, having fun essentially having sleepovers together in new cities every few weeks and getting free drinks courtesy of their friends.

After one particular wedding just outside of town, they find themselves in a diner for breakfast before they had planned to hit the road back home so they can get some stuff done before work the next morning.

“This is bad,” Zuko says after swallowing a bite of his food, grabbing for his coffee to wash it down with.

“Oh, really? The diner clam chowder wasn’t a winner? That’s news to me,” Sokka laughs as he takes a bite of his syrup-soaked pancakes.

Zuko sighs, pushing his bowl aside in favor of reaching over to cut a piece of Sokka’s pancakes to eat. “How was that guy- what was his name? Karu?”

“Haru,” Sokka corrects. “He was nice.”

There is a beat where Zuko chews and expects Sokka to keep talking, which he doesn’t. “Wow. You must have really liked him.” His voice is dripping in sarcasm.

“It was fine! He was great. I just don’t see the long-term potential there. I had a fun time,” Sokka shrugs, splitting the food on his plate in half, moving it so Zuko can reach it easier. 

“You spent one night with him, how could you possibly know that already?” Zuko leans further into the table. 

“When you’ve been single as long as me, you know what you want.” 

“But you don’t know what you want,” Zuko rolls his eyes, pushing his orange juice closer to Sokka as he finishes his own glass.

“I’m just not looking to go into something I’m not sure about! I’m trying to find the-” 

“Do not say ‘the one’,” Zuko says at the same time as Sokka says, “The one!”

Zuko groans loudly, catching the attention of an older woman a couple tables over. “You’re just so, so stupid.”

“I don’t think I am,” Sokka shakes his head, shoving some hash browns into his mouth. “What about you?”

Sokka gets a _look_ from across the table that says ‘don’t go there’ and that’s all it takes for him to drop it. Even nearly five months out of his breakup with Jet, Zuko still hasn’t so much as downloaded a dating app let alone gone on a date with anyone. 

-

The next weekend they found themselves in the mountains, at some themed hotel’s front desk, attempting to get a last-minute room.

“Do you have a reservation?” The worker asks, smiling up at them from where he sat behind the desk.

“No, because someone forgot to book a room this weekend,” Sokka says, eyeing Zuko like that is something he would actually be annoyed about.

“I didn’t forget, I was testing fate.” Zuko lies, leaning into the counter, tucking some of his hair behind his ear. “Tell me I was right about the stars aligning just so, and you have a room available.”

The worker types at the computer for a second, “Yes! We have two rooms.”

“See? It always works out,” Zuko grins over his shoulder at Sokka. For a second, Sokka isn’t even conscious of the fact that he is smiling back, his heart thudding in his ears as Zuko looked at him.

_What the fuck was that, Sokka?_

“We have one of our Brown Bear rooms that comes with two twin-sized beds and the Grizzly Suite, which is decorated fully in orange and comes with a vibrating king-sized bed.”

Sokka and Zuko share a look, Sokka just barely holds back his laughter as Zuko digs for his card out of his wallet. “The Brown Bear room is fine. Yep. Definitely Brown Bear.”

“Alright, that’ll be $74.28 including tax.”

Zuko passes over his card, waiting for the worker to look down to input his information before he kicks Sokka in the shin. Sokka holds back a yelp by turning suddenly, pretending to be interested in the giant bear painting at the entrance of the lobby.

“So, what brings you two all the way up here?” The worker makes small talk while his computer from another decade boots up. 

“A wedding,” Zuko nods, leaning his elbows on the desktop. 

“I love weddings! I’m trying to get married myself.” He smiles, nodding his head. 

Zuko, always a sucker for making situations less awkward even if that means asking strangers questions he doesn’t care to know the answer to, “Oh yeah? Have you asked your girlfriend yet?”

“Ha! I don’t have a girlfriend.” 

Sokka can feel Zuko about to sink into himself from this conversation, stepping back up to place a hand on the small of his back. “Well, good luck. Can we get two room keys?” 

With that, they are off towards their room, snickering the entire way.

-

By some kind of miracle blessed upon him by the spirits, Sokka ends up getting Zuko to agree to dance with him that night. The two of them swayed together to some instrumental song playing over the speakers set around the grounds.

“What have we got?” Sokka whispered in Zuko’s ear after a couple of songs, hands resting on his waist comfortably while Zuko’s were hanging over his shoulders.

“Hmm?” Zuko sounds like he was caught off guard, blinking up at Sokka with a confused look on his face.

“Hot singles, who are we looking at,” Sokka says as if it was the most obvious thing, head nodding toward the general space around them full of people.

“Oh-” Zuko frowns for a moment. Sokka isn’t quite sure what passes over his face, but before he can think about it too closely, it’s gone. “Green dress with the boots.” Zuko turns them slow enough to not be suspicious, giving Sokka a direct line of view of the girl.

“Mm, she looks mean.” 

“What? She just looks serious!” Zuko argues on her behalf for half a second before dropping it. “Fine, what about brown jacket with the glasses?” 

They do their gentle rotation again, “Him? Seriously? He could easily be my father’s age.” Sokka sounds offended.

“I don’t know what your type is, maybe it’s older guys.” Zuko pokes fun, a smile returning to his face. “Look, I can go spill a drink on him and you can swoop in with a napkin to help dry him off.”

“That’s assault.”

“No, it’s not! I just have a very physical way of breaking the ice.” Zuko’s bottom lip juts out in a pout.

“That is the literal definition of assault and I hate you,” Sokka smiles down at him. There’s a quick flash out of the corner of his eye, catching both of their attention.

“You two are such a hot couple.” The wedding photographer beams at them, raising their camera again to snap another picture. “Do you want a copy of these? I can email them to you.” Another picture is taken, and Zuko turns his face to half hide it in Sokka’s jacket sleeve, feeling like the flash is going to blind him if the pictures don’t stop soon.

“Please stop,” Sokka laughs, wrapping his arms tighter around Zuko, “No thank you.”

“I need a drink,” Zuko mumbles, pulling Sokka with him as he starts to walk away from the camera.

-

They find themselves at the bar for a while, both nursing their first drinks as they talk about work and things that have happened since the last wedding they went to where this routine had occurred. Sokka tells Zuko about his plan to steal Momo from Aang and Katara after their wedding. Zuko fills Sokka in on how things at the Jasmine Dragon have been and Uncle Iroh is doing. 

It was all fine and good, laughs being shared and drinks leaving condensation rings on the wooden bar beside them until someone Zuko knows shows up with her boyfriend. 

“Zuko? Hi! I didn’t know if you’d be here!” Some old coworker's friend, he thinks?

Zuko turns at the voice, eyebrows raising, “Oh-” he racks his brain for a name to fit the face, shooting his luck “Kaya? Hello.”

“It’s so nice to see you!” Kaya turns to the man beside her, pointing to Zuko “This is Zuko, Jet’s boyfriend!”

“Jet? I love Jet! We interned together like a hundred years ago,” He laughs. Neither of them seems to sense the way Zuko was tensing up in his seat. But Sokka had.

“Hi, Sokka. The new boyfriend,” He holds a hand out to them, giving them each a firm shake. The way ‘boyfriend’ felt on his tongue when it was about Zuko had Sokka feeling like the alcohol he had been sipping all evening was crawling back up to burn his throat.

Both Kaya and her partner seem taken back by that, but have matching polite smiles. “Oh my gosh, I had no idea you and Jet broke up. So sorry to hear that, but I see you’re going well.”

“Yeah, we’ve been great. It was really nice to meet you, but we are going to head outside. This one gets a little claustrophobic in crowded spaces like this,” Sokka smiles, helping Zuko up before excusing them.

Zuko’s eyes were on the side of Sokka’s face since the word ‘boyfriend’ left his mouth, and he didn’t look away even after they were outside in the summer air. “What was that?”

“I figured you needed some help. I don’t know, it was the first thing that came to mind.” Sokka shrugs, looking around at the empty steps to the front of the venue.

“I thought you were the plan guy, that was not a very well thought out plan,” Zuko was smiling now, which was good. That meant that he wasn’t mad at Sokka for saying that. “They’re going to gossip and it’ll get back to people we do know, eventually.”

“Oh well,” Sokka laughs “I have a new and better plan, I’m a little tipsy and I think I saw a pool when we drove up and I think we could both use a little cooling off.” Mischief riddled Sokka’s face, daring Zuko to get on board.

Without hesitation, Zuko started looking around “Race you.”

They were off, with no real direction in mind, just jogging around until they both spotted the turquoise water out back. They both started running, shedding shoes and jackets and ties along the way before they jumped straight in, no regard for the rest of their clothes. They both needed something to shock their systems and bring them back to how they felt when they were teenagers, without a real care in the world.

-

Zuko popped up from under the water, gasping for air as he pushed his wet hair out of his face, “How long was that?”

“Seventeen seconds,” Sokka says, flicking some water into his face.

“What?! That was five minutes.” Zuko says, sounding completely certain.

Sokka sputters at his confidence, swimming closer “Do you really think you can hold your breath for five minutes?”

“I _know_ I can hold my breath for five minutes,” Zuko counters, legs kicking slightly under them to keep himself afloat despite the water being shallow enough for him to stand comfortably. 

“I think you’re vastly overestimating your abilities,” Sokka chuckles, reaching forward to wipe away a water drop that hung to the end of Zuko’s nose.

Zuko scrunches his nose up after Sokka pulls his hand away, “I perfectly estimate my everything, Sokka.”

Sokka reaches under the water, yanking Zuko into a hug by the front of his soaking wet dress shirt. “Hey..”

“Hi?” Zuko goes stiff in his arms for a moment before wrapping his own around Sokka’s neck, hugging him in as well.

“I’m sorry if what I did earlier really made you uncomfortable. It was a spur of the moment decision to get us out of that conversation without having to talk about… you know who and what happened.”

Sokka can feel the tension leave Zuko’s body, his fingers finding some loose curls at the back of Sokka’s head. “It didn’t make me uncomfortable. I guess it just caught me by surprise. Thank you for sticking up for me, though. If you didn’t, I think I would have just gone on and on about how our love fizzled out and I felt like I was living a fake life in my own home,” Zuko means for it to be a joke. It doesn’t come off as a joke.

They stay there in silence for a moment, little waves from the wind splashing up against them. Sokka was the one to pull away a little, wanting to check in on Zuko.

It was Zuko who had leaned in for what Sokka assumes is a kiss, because what else could it have been?

Sokka turns his head at the last second, looking out towards where the venue was. It was as if he hadn’t noticed things had gotten so quiet until that very second. “Where is everyone?”

Zuko separates himself from Sokka quickly, blinking away water (from the pool, Sokka hoped). “Uh-”

“Shit, I think we missed the shuttle.” Sokka swam to the edge, pulling himself out quickly. He didn’t miss the way Zuko seemed a little surprised that he turned around to help Zuko out too, but Sokka didn’t focus on that. They had bigger things to worry about right now.

“We’ll just have to call a car,” Zuko says as he collects his things off of the ground.

Sokka grabs his phone, hitting the power button a few times before swearing, “It’s dead.”

Zuko hums, doing the same to his before his eyebrow turns downward. “Mine too… where’s the hotel?”

“About ten thousand miles that way,” Sokka groans, pulling his shoes on. 

Zuko steps into his own shoes, wrapping a towel around his shoulders. “Only ten thousand miles?” He’s trying to lighten the mood, sensing Sokka’s stress level rising.

“We’re gonna die out here.”

“It’ll be a nice walk, come on,” Zuko nods his head towards where their shuttle had come from earlier that evening.

-

“Are you serious? You’re telling me Azula, your sister Azula, has a new soft spot for baking?”

They had found their way to the main street that was littered with small boutiques and bars that closed at 10. The both of them were less dripping wet, now more damp and a little uncomfortable but were trying to make the best of it.

“Yes!! I’ll have to give you some of her snickerdoodles next time she brings them over. I hate cinnamon but have eaten an entire tray of them on my own over the course of one weekend.”

Sokka laughs, bumping into Zuko lightly. “I can’t wait, truly. But don’t tell her some of them are for me or she’ll put curry powder in them instead.”

“She’s insistent on baking her own wedding cake, Ty Lee is trying to get her to agree not to so that she doesn’t have another stressor on her plate.” Zuko pauses in front of a shop's windows towards the end of his sentence, smiling “These are so beautiful…”

There were dozens of different flowers in arrangements sitting in the display. “I don’t understand flowers,” Sokka says over Zuko’s shoulder before he continues walking.

“You don’t understand flowers? What is there to understand?”

“I just don’t think a gift should already be on its way to death when you give it to someone,” Sokka shrugs, looking over as Zuko catches back up to fall in line with his walking pace. 

“It’s not about how long they last, Sokka! It’s about the way it feels to get a big fucking bouquet of tulips because someone that loves you saw something so beautiful and thought of you,” Zuko smiles, staring ahead at the empty street.

They let that idea linger between them for the rest of the walk to the hotel, getting into dry pajamas and falling into their previously decided on twin-sized beds.

-

This time when Sokka drops Zuko off at home, he is a little kinder. He parks out front and is already out of the car and pulling Zuko’s bag from the trunk before Zuko has the chance to get out of the car.

“Oh. Hey thanks,” Zuko smiles, taking it from him. “‘Til the next one?”

“Yeah. Bye, Zuko,” Sokka steps closed, leaning in to kiss his forehead gently before he has the chance to second guess it.

Zuko’s eyebrow climbs to his hairline, head tilting a little but he’s grinning. “See ya, Sokka.” 

* * *

Sokka touched down in Hawaii early on Thursday morning, going straight to the hotel room he had booked ahead of him and Zuko. (Maybe he paid a little more than necessary for a bigger room with a better view.)

He dropped off his bags first, going to sit on the small patio outside of the room to call Zuko. 

The phone only rings twice before it picks up and he hears Zuko’s voice. “Hey! I forgot when you said your flight was getting in?” He tried to keep the nerves he was feeling out of his voice. 

“Uh,” Zuko sounded like he had pulled the phone away, probably to look at his ticket. “Just after 3 in the afternoon.”

“Today?”

“Tomorrow,” Zuko corrects, sounding clearer now. 

Sokka’s shoulders slumped, frowning at that. It was only one day, but he thought they would get two and a half days there together, not just one and change. “Oh. Okay… well, I’ll see you then?”

“Yep. Listen, I’ve got to go pack and you’ve got a beach to take advantage of, so I’ll let you go,” Zuko chuckled into the receiver. 

“Okay, yeah.” Sokka hears the call end before he can give a proper goodbye, frowning down at the black screen.

-

Sokka had no trouble finding ways to spend his time while waiting for Zuko to arrive, but everything he did he felt would be better with Zuko there. Even when he spent the morning reading outside and drinking his coffee, all he could think of was a sleepy Zuko watching the waves beside him.

He was waiting out front of the hotel, watching the taxis come and go until finally, the one Zuko was in showed up.

“Sokka?! _The_ Sokka?” Zuko jokes as he throws the door open, bag in hand.

Sokka laughed, happy to play along with him. “Zuko Sozin?! It feels like it’s been years!” He meets Zuko in the middle, pulling him into a hug. “I missed you. Surprisingly even Hawaii is boring without you.” His voice was softer now that they were so close.

Zuko laughs, swatting his shoulder, “You’re such a liar. Come on, there’s a beach I’ve been dying to see.”

-

Sokka shows Zuko to the room, helping him put his bags away.

“Holy shit, Sokka, this room is amazing!” Zuko looks around, mouth open a little in shock, “You can’t afford this.”

“Oh, we’re splitting it.” Sokka jokes, leaning on the doorframe to the bedroom area with a smile. 

Zuko laughs, turning to look back over at him, “We’ll see about that.” He jerks his thumb towards the champagne bottle resting on ice on the desk. “Did you do that?”

Sokka shrugs, trying to act casual. “Maybe.”

Zuko goes a little pink at the simple gesture, giving Sokka a burst of hope in his chest. “Why don’t we open that and relax out on the patio before heading down to the water?”

“I like that idea a lot,” Sokka nods, already moving to open the bottle.

Once they’ve settled on their respective chairs, plastic cups full of fizzy alcohol, Zuko feels he is able to speak up. “Sokka?”

“Hmm?” Sokka lowers his sunglasses down to his nose, looking over to Zuko. What a sight he is, the pinks and reds of the sky reflecting onto his skin. The gold flecks in his copper eyes standing out more in the natural light before he covers them with his own pair of sunglasses. Zuko’s hair was tied back into a ponytail, sleek and long. He had shown up in some ridiculous bright red, floral button-down with the top three buttons undone, leaving his skin free to the warm sun above them just before it disappeared behind the waves.

“A few weeks ago, at the last wedding. When we were in the pool… I wanted to kiss you.” Zuko’s voice was gentle but firm. He had clearly practiced this, and that was something Sokka thought was incredibly sweet.

“Yeah?” Sokka found himself grinning ear to ear, leaning into the arm of his chair. “I know.”

“Right.” Zuko huffs a little, “And I think you wanted to kiss me too. But you were scared. Or- Okay that’s what Azula thinks happened, I told her about it. Sorry. She’s my sister, I tell her almost everything. I’m sure that you are the same way about Katara. Or maybe you’re not… I don’t know, actually. I guess I shouldn’t make assumptions about your relationship with your sister-”

Sokka cut Zuko off of his rant with a laugh, “If I kiss you now, will you stop worrying so much?”

He could tell Zuko’s eyes were wide even behind his shades, ponytail bouncing as he nodded quickly. “Yeah- Yep. I think that would work.”

Sokka didn’t bother giving him a response, leaning over to close the space between them. Zuko’s lips were slightly chapped from the long day of plane rides he had just had but he tasted sweet from the champagne. Sokka’s hand raised up to cup his cheek gently and brushed his thumb over where his scar knitted into his hair just above his ear.

Sokka knows, right there in that moment, that he could spend the rest of his life kissing Zuko. He would give up eating, drinking, even laughing if it meant he could just kiss Zuko with every second left of his life. Judging by the noise that pulled from Zuko’s throat and the way he also made no move to pull away anytime soon, Sokka thinks maybe Zuko felt the same way about kissing him.

Maybe, just maybe, they were starting to enjoy going to all of these weddings.

-

The wedding had undoubtedly been beautiful, probably the most beautiful of all of them. But they were biased because it was the first one that had attended as a couple and they were still a little giddy.

The next morning, Zuko found himself sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of the full-length mirror in their room, braiding back his hair to keep it out of his face.

“Hey, Zuko?”

“Hmm?” Zuko hummed around the bobby pins he was holding between his teeth before he used them to pin back the strays at the front of his face.

“I don’t want to alarm you,” Sokka pauses to add some dramatic effect to his entrance from the bathroom behind Zuko, “But I think I’m a robe guy now.

“Oh wow,” Zuko laughs, looking up at him in the mirror, “It doesn’t fit your tall ass body.”

“I think I’m showing a very tasteful amount of leg, I feel beautiful,” Sokka grins down at him, watching Zuko stand up.

“Right, yeah no definitely. But um, are you gonna get dressed? Because we have a plane to catch in like two hours.” 

“Nope, this is me now.”

“Oh like, forever?”

“Yep.”

“Okay, cool. I mean, I like it. Are you at least packed?” Zuko chuckles, shaking his head slightly.

“See, I was thinking about that…” Sokka starts, moving up to wrap his arms around Zuko’s middle, resting his chin on his shoulder comfortably.

Zuko leans back into his embrace, smiling at the mirror version of them “Mhm?”

“We could stay an extra day or two. Just ‘cause.”

“I could get down with that,” Zuko seems to perk up as he starts to realize Sokka is completely serious.

Sokka relaxes at the confirmation, still giddy and unsure of this entire thing. He is still learning how to balance the line between childhood best friends and newly dating, not wanting to do anything that makes Zuko uncomfortable (or spirit-forbid regret his decision to date Sokka in the first place).

“I’ll change the reservation then.” Sokka lets himself get a long glance at their reflections. “I get why people have told me we would look good together.”

“Really? People have said that to you?”

“On multiple occasions.”

“That’s so weird cause all I get is ‘Why do you spend so much time with that Radio Shack employee?’” Zuko bites down on his bottom lip to hold back his laughter.

“Radio Shack isn’t… even a thing anymore,”

“Well, it still looks like you work there. And honestly, that’s more sad.” 

“Mm, okay, yeah I see it,” Sokka plays along, turning him around in his arms, pressing a kiss to his forehead. 

Zuko pulls himself away from Sokka’s grasp, laughing as he heads back into the bedroom to unpack some of his things, given that they weren’t going anywhere just yet. Sokka watched as he walked away, feeling simultaneously as calm and as overwhelmed as he had ever felt.

* * *

“Azula was always the better sibling. I mean, she was perfect. She got a 4.0 GPA, she was the captain of the volleyball team, graduated with honors, and then some. So it comes as no surprise that she found the perfect person to spend the rest of her life with too. Congrats, Azula and Ty Lee. You guys are amazing.” Zuko finishes his speech, standing up straight from where he had been crouching a little to speak clearly into the microphone. 

It had felt a little silly to stand in front of such a small group of their closest friends and family in Uncle Iroh’s backyard and give a heartfelt speech to his sister who hated public displays of any sort of affection or love. But overall, the wedding was beautiful. (And Azula had gotten her wish, and was allowed to make her own wedding cake, which unsurprisingly turned out perfect.)

-

“It’s about time,” Iroh says, clasping a hand on Zuko’s shoulder from where he was standing behind Zuko’s chair.

A laugh broke out around their table, Zuko’s cheeks going bright red at the same moment that Sokka’s face filled with pride. “ _Uncle_.”

“I mean it! I am very happy for the two of you. Now both my niece and nephew have found amazing partners to travel with through this dark tunnel that is life.” Iroh giving his shoulder a squeeze, a way of showing his love to Zuko on a more personal level.

“Thank you, Uncle Iroh,” Sokka beams.

The rest of the reception had gone by so quickly that it felt like they had just started by the time Iroh was ushering people out of the door and sending the newlyweds off to their apartment. They had offered to stay over to help clean up the next morning, like Sokka and Zuko were, but Iroh had made it apparent that they weren’t going to do that. He wanted them to be able to sleep their first night married together in their own bed. (Everyone kind of knew what he was getting at but Zuko had brought him his nighttime tea and ushered him to bed before he could make it any more awkward). 

That was how Sokka found himself in Zuko’s childhood bedroom he had seen a thousand times before, flipping through his junior year yearbook. “I didn’t know Jin had a crush on you back then.”

“How do you know that?” Zuko asks from where he was tugging on an oversize sweatshirt to sleep in before moving onto the task of tying his hair up. 

“You wrote it on her picture,” Sokka turns the book so Zuko can lean down and see.

That gets a laugh out of him, moving back to his mirror. “Oh, oops.”

Sokka chuckles, looking over at his bedside table where his phone had lit up and caught his attention. “Uh- Jet texted you?”

Zuko turns swiftly back to the bed, eyes wide, “Just now?”

“Yeah,” Sokka doesn’t like whatever feeling was growing behind his ribcage and crawling upwards. “You gonna check it?”

“No…” Zuko answered easily, staying right where he was standing. He didn’t make a move for the phone or even look in its direction. “I already know what it says.”

“What does it say…?” Sokka felt bad for asking, he felt like he was prying, but he couldn’t stop himself.

Zuko finally does move, but instead of going to the phone, he goes to the side of the bed Sokka isn’t occupying and crawls in beside him. “It says “Oh Zuko, I miss you so much. I’m so sorry, please forgive me, I want you back”.” Zuko pulls on a funny voice the way Sokka would if he were the one telling the story, and that brings a lighter feeling to the center of Sokka’s chest.

“Oh,” Sokka smiles, reaching over him to flip the lamp off, “Then I guess we don’t need to check that, after all.”

“No, I don’t think we do,” Zuko laughs, setting the yearbook aside and tugging the blankets up over them.

* * *

The downfall had started with little things that usually wouldn’t have been an issue between the two of them. But to Sokka, it felt like just one thing after another, every single day. Forgetting something on the grocery list when they were coming over to make dinner; not washing their mug after they were done and causing a coffee stain at the bottom of it; not dropping off a birthday card in the mail from the both of them in time for it to be delivered before the person's birthday. 

The bickering turned to fights that could be resolved with a simple “I’m sorry, I’ll do better” which turned into arguments that lasted days and sometimes weeks. A few months had dragged on before he finally hit his breaking point.

But to Sokka, it felt like one thing after another. Looking back on it, he would tell you he was just too scared of doing something to screw things up on accident, so he started to screw things up on purpose. That way there wasn’t an element of surprise of when things would take a turn for the worse.

-

“What’s going on with you?” Zuko had asked after one of their nearly silent dinners, that had followed a particularly bad fight.

“Nothing, I’m just thinking,” Sokka said as he dried off one of their dishes. 

“About?” Zuko urged, crossing his arms from where he stood at the other end of the small kitchen.

Sokka doesn't want to answer at first, but he reluctantly does. “I’ve been thinking about us, you know? About what this whole thing is.”

“This whole- Sokka, we’re dating. That’s what ‘this whole thing’ is.”

“Right- but it’s not weird to you? That we were just all of a sudden this, like, couple?” His words aren’t coming out how he wants them to, Sokka isn’t expressing his read concerns clearly enough. He knows that, but he doesn’t exactly know _how_ to relay his feelings correctly.

“No! I mean, come on, Sokka. This isn’t sudden. We’ve been doing this for a while. We had been toeing this line for a long time.” Zuko frowns, stepping closer to Sokka, taking the dish from him and setting it aside.

“I just- I guess I never really. I never saw us as a _thing_!” Sokka feels trapped with Zuko so close now, stuck between him and the cabinets behind him. 

“So? Neither did I! But we work, Sokka. Things changed, it just- it just happened!” He hated how tight Zuko’s voice was, a clear sign that he was already nearing tears.

Sokka huffed, looking away. He knows he won’t be able to say this to Zuko’s face. “I’m just… Maybe I’m having doubts.”

“Okay. Sokka, that’s okay. I have doubts, too! That’s a normal thing to feel in a serious relationship!”

Sokka shakes his head, pushing away from his corner and into the middle of the kitchen. “Sometimes I look at these other couples and we aren’t like them, Zuko. They have this… this…” He searches for the word, but Zuko finds it first.

“ _Love_?”

“Yeah.” That one syllable feels heavier on his tongue than every word from every novel he’s ever read.

“Yeah, well I love you, asshole!” Zuko bites, tears starting to slip down his face now. There is a silence after his declaration, a saddening one that feels like a raincloud had stopped right over Sokka’s apartment and made a home there. “Do you love me?”

A noise comes out of Sokka’s throat, something sounding very close to a ‘no’, “I don’t know.”

“So that’s a no…”

“It’s an I don’t know!” Sokka argues, feeling more frustrated with himself, than he is at Zuko, for not being able to give Zuko the answer he wants or deserves. “I need to be 100% certain with you and I’m not! I’m not right now.”

“Oh my god,” 

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I should have stopped this before anything like this happened.”

“Sokka, don’t do this. Stop, stop doing this.” Zuko raises his voice to cut through Sokka’s. “We have a good thing, okay? I’m not- I’m not asking you to marry me, I’m not asking to move in. What- what do you need? Because what we have is _good_ , you just have to give it a chance!”

“I can’t- I can’t!”

“Why now?!” Zuko demands, slamming his palm down onto the counter, more to balance himself out through his anger than anything else. 

“I can’t just say ‘fuck it’ and then hurt you the way that Jet hurt you! I’m sorry, but that would kill me if I did that to you!” Sokka blurts out, eyes red-rimmed and stinging.

Zuko takes a deep breath, looking down at the floor for a ten count before looking back up at Sokka. He wasn’t even attempting to hide his crying anymore. 

“Don’t say that to me. You’re hurting me way more right now than Jet ever hurt me.”

That… stung worse than any hit Sokka had ever taken before, physically or emotionally. But Zuko didn’t stop, “You talk about how you want love, and how you’re always looking for love. And I'm here! It’s standing right here in front of you and you can’t- you can’t-” Zuko is cut off by the lump in his throat, a sob breaking through. 

“Zuko-”

“Don’t- Don’t fucking say you’re sorry. You’re not sorry, Sokka. You’re an asshole.”

Sokka doesn’t even know what to say, mouth hanging open as a whirlwind of Zuko passes right by him in a rush, grabbing his things. “Wait-”

“Fuck you,” Zuko snaps, not even giving him the chance to defend himself anymore or apologize another time before he slams the door in his face.

-

Sokka and Zuko don’t talk for two weeks.

Suki is the first one to call Sokka and chew him out for what happened, and the only reason it wasn’t Katara was that she had been working all day and didn’t hear about it until her shift ended

(Sokka had a feeling that Zuko was receiving a similar, yet probably much more kind, call from Mai that morning too. If she hadn’t just gone over to his apartment the night before. Fuck, Sokka hated how he knew so much about Zuko, so much that he could speculate with great accuracy what he was doing at any given moment.)

“Sokka, what the fuck?”

“Suki,” Sokka croaks, looking over at his alarm clock to see the bright red “7:31” blinking back at him. “Do you know what time it is?”

“Yes. Do you know how you are stupid?”

“...yes.” 

“Yeah, well, I think you’ve somehow topped yourself and become even stupider!” Suki snaps. It is obvious she has him on speakerphone in her car, and judging by the early hour, she was squeezing her ‘scream at Sokka’ time in before work that morning.

“What the hell, Sokka? You broke up with Zuko?”

“I didn’t- not exactly.” Sokka sits up, rubbing his temple. He feels hungover despite having been completely sober the night before. “I just… I don’t get it, Suks. How is everyone just so… in love and so sure?”

Suki’s laugh was anything but inviting, instead sending shivers down Sokka’s spine despite her not even being in the same room as him. “No one is sure!”

“What are you talking about? You and Yue are perfect. You don’t have doubts about her.” Sokka stares up at the ceiling, frowning. He’s not exactly looking for a talking down to from a perfect married couple.

“Why would you say that? How are you so sure, huh? Do you watch us at all times, do you have like- cameras in our home?” Sokka knows they’re rhetorical questions, but his nose still scrunches up at the accusation. “We’re not perfect, we have doubts all the time! We just went for it, Sokka. We don’t know!”

Sokka sits with that for a moment, listening to Suki drive. “So then, what’s the point of all of it? If you’re never going to be sure?”

“Because it’s fun, Sokka. It’s fun to throw a big party and get to tell someone you love them in front of everyone that is important to you and have them say it back. And it’s nice to know you’re doing it with the knowledge of hopefully spending the rest of your life with that person. It’s the best feeling in the world to say to someone that you’re in, completely.”

Oh. _Oh…_

Sokka fucked up. “I fucked up.”

“I know that, now you have to find a way to fix it, idiot.”

* * *

The next time Sokka sees Zuko is at the wedding of one of the servers at the Jasmine Dragon. It was a small gathering, and Sokka almost feels guilty showing up. Almost.

He’s got a bundle of tulips wrapped in brown paper in his hand, stopping anyone he so much as half recognizes to ask them if they’ve seen Zuko around. Finally, he spots a familiar suit in the crowd entering the venue and nearly topples over an older lady. 

“Sorry!” He calls over his shoulder, just narrowly missing being hit with a purse before skidding to a stop in front of Zuko.

“Sokka?” Zuko’s eyes widen, taking half a step back out of pure surprise to see him here and from his abrupt entrance. 

“Jet,” Sokka’s eyes settled on the figure beside Zuko and he felt his fists tighten a little. 

“I thought you couldn’t come to this one?” Zuko quickly covers, moving half a centimeter in front of Jet, as if they were going to fight right outside of this wedding.

Sokka doesn’t look away from Jet until Zuko clears his throat, eyes darting down to him. “I uh, moved my thing.”

“Those flowers for me, big guy?” Jet says, trying to act cool and joke with him like they are buddies of some kind. 

“No. They’re for Zuko, to uh, apologize for… almost missing this wedding.” Sokka shoves them forward into Zuko’s hands, frowning down at his own now empty ones. That wasn’t the romantic gesture that he wanted to happen.

Jet hums, hand resting on the small of Zuko’s back. “That’s nice. Come on, let’s go inside and find some seats, Zuko.”

Sokka opens his mouth to protest but closes it upon seeing Zuko’s pointed stare. So he lets them go, and instead of going into the wedding of someone he doesn’t really know other than by first name, he goes and sits in his car and waits for the ceremony to end.

_How could Zuko bring Jet as his date? After everything he did to him? … How could he expect Zuko to forgive him when Sokka hurt him worse._

A knock on his driver’s side window startles Sokka out of where he had been staring off into space. All he can see is from the waist up to where the small flower is attached to Zuko’s lapel. Sokka quickly gets out, closing the door a little too hard behind himself.

“Hi- uh, hi.”

“Hello.” Zuko’s voice sounded tired, and he looked the part too.

“Those flowers were an apology, by the way. Just not for the wedding, for the… you know.” Sokka trails off, shoving his hands into his pockets.

“Yeah, I know.” Zuko sighs, looking down at the flowers still in his hands. “I was surprised, I thought you didn’t understand flowers.”

“But I know you do,” Sokka says softly. “Does he,” _Jet_ “know about me?”

Zuko looks at the space just left of Sokka’s shoulder, “Yeah… Not the biggest fan, but uh, sleeping with the accountant kind of cancels it out.”

“Right. Yeah,” So they are kind of back together? The thought of that makes Sokka sick to his stomach instantly. “Can I say something?”

“I’d rather you didn’t-” Zuko starts, standing up a little straighter as he looks at something, _someone_ , making their way to them behind Sokka.

“I can’t do this without you. I can’t… go to all of these stupid weddings and I can’t live my life without you, Zuko. You’re not there to make fun of me for everything I do, you’re not there to make fun of other couples, not there to order fucking- fish from a diner.” Sokka’s voice dares to break with each word that comes out of his mouth. “And the worst part of all of this is that the only reason you aren’t there is because I fucked up, and I hurt you. I hurt the one person that never deserved it. 

“I pushed you away because I was so scared of accidentally hurting you that I ended up hurting you on purpose and I can’t live with that. I’m dumb, and I’m too selfish. And _fuck me_ for being too late, but I love you, Zuko.”

“You love me?” Zuko finally meets Sokka’s eyes, tear-filled and sad.

“Of course,” Sokka says breathlessly. “Zuko-”

“Everything okay?” Jet is suddenly right there, moving in Zuko’s space, “You ready to go?” He’s acting as if he can’t tell they had clearly been having a private conversation and like he can’t see Zuko is crying.

“Can we just get like five minutes?” Sokka snaps.

“No, I uh… Yeah, I’m ready to go,” Zuko sniffles, wiping at his eyes. “Bye, Sokka,” he says as Jet is already turning him towards where Sokka assumes their car is parked.

Sokka is still standing there in that spot long after he can’t see them anymore. It takes a lot of energy to get himself back into his car and drive back to his apartment.

* * *

“When my sister asked me to give a speech at her wedding, I almost said no. Okay, that’s a lie, I _did_ say no at first. Because I knew that it was going to take a lot for me to get up here and tell you about how much I love my baby sister and how proud of her I am without bursting into tears.” Sokka chuckles, looking down at his shoes for a second, stealing a moment to himself before he continues on to the next paragraph on his paper. “But I’m here right now in front of all of you, giving this speech at her wedding, so she clearly talked me into it.

“You see, we grew up in a household that was so chalked full of love. My parents were the perfect match, and every bit of love that they felt for each other, they passed down to Katara and me. We saw this kind of love that was only heard of in love songs, only ever seen in plays and on movie screens, only talked about in folklore and elders tales. It felt unobtainable to anyone that didn’t live between the walls of our childhood home.

“After our mother passed, it felt like the world had taken all of that love and ripped it right out of all of us. It was like when we lost her, we lost a thousand lifetimes worth of love. For me, it made me scared to ever truly find someone to love again. I became self-destructive in all of my relationships because as soon as I could see that what I had could turn into something good, I was so afraid that it would get taken away from me that I had to ruin it myself before that could happen.

“Not Katara. She had a different outlook on life, and she learned another way to deal with that loss of love. After our father brought Bato into our lives, and we could see that there was more out there for us than just grief, Katara decided to go and find her own source of magical love. She wasn’t afraid of what she could lose, she was only afraid of what she would never know. There were a couple of guys that we really thought could be the ones.” Sokka cringes a little at the thought, “But from the second she walked through the doors with Aang on her arm, it was like the family could breathe again. 

“As the big brother, I’m supposed to be the one to create a path for her to follow so she doesn’t end up getting hurt or losing her way, but Katara has been the one to step up and show me that love isn’t something to be afraid of wanting. I hope that I can be half as incredibly brave and smart as my little sister. 

“I have no doubt that Katara and Aang were meant for each other. And I know that things are going to get hard and scary and weird, but I am confident that these two are strong enough to make it through anything. I love you guys with everything in me. To Katara and Aang.”

Sokka finishes his speech, lowering his paper before looking forward.

Golden brown eyes meet his own, a grin and a wipe of a tear waiting for him. “That’s it?”

“What- what do you mean ‘that’s it’?” Sokka laughs, shocked by that response. Of all of the things he thought Zuko would say, that one didn’t make his mental list.

“You can’t shout out Katara’s ex-boyfriends in her wedding speech, she’s gonna kill you!”

“I’m just trying to be honest!”

“Then be honest!” Zuko stands up from the barstool he had been sitting at, “Say ‘I learned about love after I hurt Zuko and then came crawling back.” His voice is full of laughter, with no anger or resentment present. 

Sokka gasps at such an accusation, “I did not come crawling back.” 

“Oh, you fucking _crawled_ , Sokka” 

“If anything, you’re the one that crawled back! You waited for like- two hours outside of my apartment after that wedding to tell me you forgave me and kissed me real good! It’s the 21st century, Zuko, we have phones. And you have a key to my apartment- Hey!”

Zuko laughs against Sokka’s lips, muffled slightly as Sokka stops talking long enough to kiss him back. He pulled away, brushing his thumb over Sokka’s freckled cheek as he rests their foreheads together. “You’re damn right I crawled back. Now we have to go, we are seriously so late for the wedding party pictures.”

“Katara will understand,” Sokka grins, dipping Zuko slightly just to pull a squeal from him before he kisses him again. 

Yeah, Sokka was right, he really _was_ never going to get sick of kissing Zuko.

**Author's Note:**

> hmu on tumblr w the same username: hotdamnitszuko


End file.
